Covering the major birding sites of this fascinating land, this comprehensive tour goes out in search of some incredibly beautiful specialties. Setting out from the ostentatious capital of Bangkok, we scan the mudflats near Samut Sakhon for migrant waders (including a couple of the worlds most sought-after and endangered – Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Nordmann’s Greenshank), before continuing to Kaeng Krachan. This park, offering unbroken rainforest scenery, supports one of the richest bird species lists in South-east Asia. We will be kept enthralled as we sift through an assortment of bee-eaters, pigeons, broadbills, laughingthrushes and leafbirds among many others. We then head north-east of Bangkok to explore the forested hillsides of Khao Yai National Park, where we will be overwhelmed by a vast array of broadbills, hornbills, bulbuls, babblers, and barbets. This is also the prime site for sought-after species such as Blue and Eared Pittas, Silver Pheasant and Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo. A short flight north takes us to Chang Mai, where we explore the mountain forests of Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s most famous birding site, where a whole collection of uniquely Asian groups such as ioras, barwings, mesias, minlas, sibias, and niltavas will dazzle us with brilliant color and patterning. Thereafter, we will bird through the mountains of Doi Angkhang and Doi Lang on the border of Myanmar, where we will continue finding representatives of unique groups including parrotbills, liocichlas, finchbills, bushchats and dazzling minivets. This is also the realm of Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant, Himalayan Cutia, Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Hodgson’s Frogmouth and Giant Nuthatch.

This tour is designed to take advantage of the incredible influx of migrants from the north, and an amazing compilation of resident Asian bird species. There is also the option to join our Thailand – Southern Extension: Rainforest Birding and if doing both tours you will likely see around 550 species! Aside from those mentioned above, we will target a host of localized and range-restricted species such as Siamese Fireback, Great Hornbill, Banded Kingfisher, Silver-breasted, Green and the huge Dusky Broadbill, Rusty-naped, and Mangrove Pittas, the stunning Black-headed and Great Slaty Woodpeckers, Ratchet-tailed Treepie, Grey Peacock-Pheasant, Green Cochoa, Black-throated, and Grey-headed Parrotbills, Scarlet-faced Liocichla, and unbelievable Green Peafowl.

The final leg of this extraordinary tour ventures through the tropical foothills of the eastern Andes together with the lowlands of the Amazon basin. This region boasts some of the most impressive biodiversity worldwide. Bird–wise, the area is arguably the most species-rich in the world. The Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary bird list alone surpasses 500 species while the number of bird species recorded at Sani Lodge is approaching 600! The tour will focus on finding as many species and local specialties as possible by visiting multiple habitats within the Amazonian basin. Although the list of possible targets is immense here, a couple of iconic species that we will target include; Hoatzin, Zigzag, Capped and Agami Herons, Grey-winged Trumpeter, Sungrebe, Scarlet, Blue-and-yellow, Chestnut-fronted and Red-bellied Macaws, Gould’s Jewelfront, Wire-crested Thorntail, Great and Long-tailed Potoo, White-throated, Black-mandibled and Channel-billed Toucans, Many-banded and Ivory-billed Aracaris, American Pygmy and Green-and-rufous Kingfishers, Gilded and Scarlet-crowned Barbets, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Coppery-chested Jacamar, Rusty-belted Tapaculo, Long-billed Woodcreeper, Cinnamon Attila, Screaming Piha, Golden-headed and Orange-crowned Manakins, Bare-necked Fruitcrow and dozens of antbird species! 

Jordyn

Looking ahead to their future together, after Jordyn and Craig’s recent engagement, they made a family decision for Jordyn to leave the Rockjumper Team and focus on her new business. We wish them all the best as they plan their wedding and wonderful life together. 
 
“The decision to leave the Rockjumper Team was not an easy one. The relationships that I built with colleagues and guests alike were the ultimate highlight of being a part of this extraordinary team. After handing the Tour Support reins over to Tia and a few sad tears, I wish Rockjumper, their team and guests all the best for the future. Happy travels and kept safe!”

George

Courageously turning many pages to the new chapter in his life, George parted ways with the Rockjumper Team to pursue some exciting avenues for his future with his beautiful new wife. Congratulations Kristen and George, we wish you and your family many happy years together in your new home. 
 
“Thanks a ton to Adam and everyone! It has been an honor to work with all of you these last 5 years. Team Rockjumper has been a superb group to adventure through this unique time and space with, and I’ve learned an awful lot from everyone. You all are great to have put up with my shenanigans, and I very much look forward to seeing you around, out in the field hopefully soon.”

Christelle 

Facing the challenges of lockdown restrictions on the beautiful island of Mauritius head on, Yaseen and Christelle decided that Covid-19 wouldn’t stop their wedding day from happening.  
 
“We had our traditional Muslim wedding called the “nikah” on the 26th of August of 2021, and our civil ceremony the next day, making it a 2 day celebration. Guests were limited to 50 per day, but it was a beautiful ceremony with all of our loved ones.” 
 
We are so proud of this couple and their positive approach to following their dreams! Christelle also aced her final ACCA exams this year, a qualification she has worked hard to accomplish – well done, Christelle!

Candice

Congratulations to Candice and Craig, who celebrated their 10th Wedding Anniversary on 24 September.  
 
“We have two wonderful boys together who keep us on our toes! It’s a wonderful milestone to achieve and I can’t wait for the next 50+ years with Craig”.

 Sarah

Sarah and Tim’s gorgeous second son, Jeremy, arrived during South Africa’s first lockdown. We are always thrilled to have new little “Rockjumpers” join the family. 

“It will be a time we will never forget, with no family or friend seeing him in person for the first 5 months of his life! He is a real delight to us, and is constantly entertaining us with all that he gets up to. He loves his big brother, Keagan, who is very protective of him. Perhaps there is a little birder in the making… as one of the first things he started pointing out from his pram on walks, were the birds!” 

Adam Walleyn

Adam and Meghan welcomed their precious daughter, Isla Katherine Walleyn, to the world on 20 October 2020 and we are already envious of some of the adventures she has been on. 
 
“Time flies and she has already had her first birthday!  It has been an exciting year for us all.  Isla is always happy and a great little camper – she is just as comfortable in a tent as in her bed at home and she has camped in about 10 states already!  She is also a very astute observer of nature and is already finding birds before her dad and pointing them out to him!  Some of her favorite finds from this past year were watching 18 wolves on a bison hunt, finding a Rosy Boa and hiking up a mountain to see an Olympic marmot.  She has even seen a Bendire’s Shrew – no doubt one of very few people to ever see this very shy animal!  But her favorite bird is the Allen’s Hummingbird that comes to the feeder outside her bedroom window every day.  She always stops playing with her toys to watch it and wave.” 

Rockjumper’s Tailor-made Tours team has had a successful and busy second half of 2021 with 14 tours in 11 different countries. In the past few months, we have successfully organized and run tours to Colombia, Hawaii, Namibia, South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Uganda to name but a few of these destinations.

Of the tours that were recently completed on the African continent a number stood out with many incredible sightings. A winter Namibia tour produced the usual array of special and near-endemic birds (over 250 species) that included beauties such as Rockrunner, the endemic Dune Lark, Herero Chat and the amazing experience of observing a Pygmy Falcon catching a Sabota Lark. Added to this was the impressive 47 mammal species, including a fantastic Leopard sighting and the unreal bonus of a Brown Hyaena chased by two Oryx.

A couple of recent South Africa trips, both lead by Daniel Danckwerts, went off very well indeed. One was specifically arranged to visit the Kimberley and Pafuri areas and was a resounding success. Noteworthy birds included White-backed Night Heron, the much sought-after Pel’s Fishing-Owl, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Bohm’s Spinetail, Namaqua Sandgrouse, and Double-banded Courser to name a few. The mammalian diversity seen was simply incredible and ranged from the bizarre Aardvark and secretive Aardwolf to the regal Sable Antelope and inquisitive family groups of Meerkat.

Our second featured South Africa tour was spent seeking out specific specials in the Cape and KwaZulu-Natal areas. The list of target species included several of South Africa’s most enigmatic birds but we were successful in finding most of them. Among the most challenging were the endangered Spotted Ground Thrush, localized Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon, both Red-chested and Buff-spotted Flufftails (in a single day!), Shelley’s Francolin, and Cuckoo-finch. The western leg of the tour produced all the Cape endemics including the seldom-seen Fynbos Buttonquail, Victorin’s Warbler, and Protea Canary. Other notable highlights included one of the first substantiated records of Tristan Albatross in Southern African waters (This species is still virtually impossible to identify in the field from Wandering Albatross) and a Spectacled Petrel on our pelagic trip, Slaty Egret (a national rarity to South Africa), Knysna Woodpecker, and Bank Cormorant.

Finally, one of the resounding successes was an extremely short notice tour to Uganda, which was put together from scratch in just 36 hours by our dedicated Tailormade team!

The tour kicked into action with a drive to Kibale National Park, connecting with Bat Hawk and Great Blue Turaco along the way, before arriving on the edge of the pristine equatorial rain forest and home to an array of superb birds and primates. During our stay here we connected with the sought-after, Green-breasted Pitta, Ross’s Turaco and White-spotted Flufftail, and a host of forest barbets while also having an intimate, sensory experience with a family cell of Chimpanzees.

Next up was Queen Elizabeth National Park, within the savanna biome, for a 2-night stay which included a fantastic cruise along the Kazinga Channel. Although this reserve hosts an array of mammals, including Lion, Leopard, and African Elephant, our focus was on birding. We managed to locate Red-throated and White-throated Bee-eater, Brown-backed Scrub Robin, Dwarf Bittern, Slender-billed and Black-headed Weaver while the cruise produced at least 75 African Skimmers and a Slender-billed Gull.

Our final stop was at Lake Mburo National Park where we enjoyed another boat cruise that produced African Finfoot while also finding three Brown-chested Lapwing before we returned to Entebbe to explore the vast Mabamba swamps which produced two fantastic Shoebill and a Lesser Jacana.

Next year is already promising to be a bumper year for our Tailor-made department with over 50 tours already lined up. We are looking forward to building on a successful 2021 as the world moves towards a ‘new normal’ with countries opening for travel all the time.

Contact our Tailormade team – tailormade@rockjumper.com if you wish to travel privately or have a group of friends or family who would like to travel together.

When the world shut down, it naturally created a small problem for a business whose primary function revolves around global travel. As with many others, we went through various phases as a business, from denial (this won’t last long) and disbelief (why is this happening) to acceptance. It didn’t take long to for the Rockjumper Team to pose the question of, ‘if we can’t get our guests to our tours, then we need to take our tours to our guests’. We sat down, and putting our skills together, began to pivot, planning an incredible number of locally based tours – from only 8 US and Canadian tours in 2019 to 18 offerings in 2020 and 34 in 2021. Nor was it just in North America that we opened up local tours – 28 tours were established in South Africa and 8 in New Zealand. As the world began to take its first timid steps and reopen some borders – so we started adding new regional offerings in the Caribbean and Central America.

Tour innovation isn’t something new for us – whilst we tend to headline the dozen or more new tours that we add most years, we’re also constantly evaluating and evolving our existing tour repertoire with new and improved birding sites, better accommodation and slicker logistics.

Tucked away in northeast Alberta is a hidden gem known as Cold Lake. Here, the woods host 23 breeding warbler species, including such stunners as Connecticut, Blackburnian, Cape May, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Bay-breasted and Canada. No “luck of the draw” birding here – almost all of these species are breeding residents that can be found every single day. Sharing the woodlands and marshes with the warblers are such mouth-watering northern specialties as Yellow Rail, Nelson’s and LeConte’s Sparrows, Spruce Grouse, Boreal Chickadee, and Canada Jay. Here is your chance to observe the breeding behaviours of your favourite migrant species – watch Bonaparte’s Gulls nesting in trees and hear Common Loons give their haunting calls.

Manitoba during winter may not sound much like a birding destination, but it is one of Canada’s best-kept birding secrets. Every winter, sought-after northern owls – Snowy, Great Grey, Northern Hawk and Boreal Owls, emerge from their usual haunts in the depths of the woods to hunt along forest edges, roadsides and agricultural fields only a short distance from the capital city of Winnipeg. Manitoba’s location in the north means that every winter provides chances to see these birds, and in some years their numbers can be astronomical! Add this to a backdrop of flocks of colourful winter finches and a suite of boreal specialty birds and it becomes a fantastic winter escape!

Our Manitoba tour takes us through open agricultural land where we will search for Snowy Owls in addition to Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, Grey Partridge, Sharp-tailed Grouse and others, and seek species such as Eastern Screech Owl and Bohemian Waxwing in suburban parkland, and Bald and Golden Eagles and Northern Goshawk overhead. We will work our way northwards to the vast expanse of boreal forest, where we will look for Northern Hawk, Great Grey and Boreal Owl as well as Red and White-winged Crossbills, Common and Hoary Redpolls, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Siskin, Spruce Grouse, Boreal Chickadee, Canada Jay and others.

We visit two boreal forest parks – Riding Mountain National Park and Hecla-Grindstone Provincial Park, which offer unparalleled access into this landscape and its birds, as well as some excellent chances for elusive mammals – most notably Canada Lynx, as well as American Marten, North American Otter, Long-tailed Weasel, Gray Wolf, Red Fox, Moose and White-tailed Deer.

We have many chances to find our targets in a variety of locations, and we will be at the start of the breeding season for many of these birds, which will be singing and easier to find.

Tadoussac is a largely undiscovered jewel in North American birding. It is one of the best places to view visible migration in the world, often involving flights of thousands of birds – finches, shorebirds, seaducks and raptors. Its northern setting makes it an excellent place to view movements of boreal finches and northern raptors, as well as seaducks such as Black, Surf and White-winged Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks and Common Eiders, gulls such as Glaucous, Iceland and Black-legged Kittiwake as well as Northern Gannets on the mighty St. Lawrence River. The St. Lawrence also hosts a resident population of Beluga whales, the southernmost in the world – which are easily visible just by walking down to the river from our hotel!

The most impressive of these many endangered species was the Akiapola’au. This incredible bird numbers less than 200 pairs, confined to the little remaining high elevation humid forest on the big island of Hawai’i. Though not the brightest of the Hawaiian Honeycreeper group, the Aki is undoubtedly the most unique. Filling the niche of woodpeckers and nuthatches, this special bird is the only species with a swiss army tool for a bill. Unlikely as it seems, the upper and lower mandibles of the Akiapola’au’s bill are each designed for a different purpose! The thick, sharp, wedge-tipped lower mandible is used for hammering into the bark, worrying holes in the branches, and prying access to their prized food source beneath. The upper mandible is long, decurved, and much thinner. It is used to probe into the access created by the lower mandible to extract larvae and other foods. Truly, an incredible bird, that I felt utterly privileged to enjoy time with.

When a “bubble” between Australia and New Zealand was announced I was quickly arranging a week’s leave in June, 2021. My plan was to visit the Northern Territory for 7 days heading into the interior south of Darwin. 

A worrying aspect leading up to my trip was an increase in covid-19 cases in Sydney. My route was Auckland/ Sydney/ Darwin. No sooner had I left Sydney en route to Darwin and New South Wales locked the state down due to many cases emerging!. 

I arrived in Darwin at 2:00am and slept on a bench outside the terminal where I fell asleep to the strange and eerie sounds of Bush Thick-knee’s calling all around me.  

The following morning before dawn, I drove to the Edith falls road where several small pans still held water. The birdlife was booming as many birds were coming in to drink as the temperature was rising. I quickly found 3 lifebirds in the forms of Bar-breasted Honeyeater and both Long-tailed and Masked finches. 

My main target, which was the reason for coming to this spot was not seen and by 09:00am I was getting a tad worried, occupying myself with photos of Rainbow Bee-eaters and Diamond Doves, then suddenly, I heard a high -pitched call I wasn’t familiar with and soon I located a small group of  the beautiful Gouldian finches, the adults in stunning colours…………what a bird! and well worth waiting several years to see. My Bird of 2021. 

I also managed a trip to Kakadu NP where i picked up a further 3 lifers in the form of Partridge Pigeon, the stunning Banded Fruit Dove and White-lined Honeyeater. 

My flight home was re-routed back through Brisbane in Queensland and 5hrs after departing they closed the borders with New Zealand! I made by the skin of my teeth so to say! 

Sitting on the north-western tip of St. Lawrence Island, the small Yupik village of Gambell is one of the remotest and finest birding locations in all of Alaska. This spring was cold in the Bering Sea and vast stretches of pack ice clung to the rugged shore of the island. The freezing temperatures and extensive sea ice delayed spring migration by a few days but did offer one of the Arctic’s true avian gems. As we headed out to the morning sea-watch during our third day of the tour, I saw an ethereally white bird coursing elegantly through the blustery winds: it could only be one thing, the much-wanted Ivory Gull. Before even setting my binoculars on the bird, I ran back along the line of ATV’s that our group was arriving on and got everyone’s attention. Luckily, we didn’t have to worry as the bird was eventually joined by a second and then settled onto the gravel beach for an hour where we could take many close photos and enjoy great views of this magical species. In all, we saw four Ivory Gulls during the tour, including two immaculate adults. The memories of freezing north winds, shifting sea ice, and this arctic gull will stay with us forever.  

Choosing a bird of the year is always something of a challenge, particularly when lockdown restrictions have limited the amount of international travel, I have been able to do. Thus, I’ve had to stay content with those oh so familiar birds closer to home; and what a joy it has been to appreciate them for a change. However, there is one sighting from last year that sticks out in my mind. The Pel’s Fishing Owl is widely regarded as one of Africa’s ‘great’ birds and is highly sought-after throughout its range. Many search for years before eventually sighting the large orange shape, perched high in a dark tree. I’ve been incredibly fortunate with the species, having seen around 30 individuals during my lifetime – largely thanks to my upbringing in southern Zambia, where the species occurs along all major river systems. I even managed to locate a pair within Mkhuze Game Reserve in South Africa, where the species is rare and only infrequently sighted. All of these sightings have been of single birds, sometimes a pair, at a day roost; and I’m sure the same can be said for most people’s views of a ‘Pel’s’.  

In September, I traveled to Pafuri – the northernmost section of Kruger National Park, here in South Africa – to search for the Pel’s Fishing Owl on a Tailor-Made tour with Rockjumper. It was a mammoth effort amounting to two full days walking through appropriate roosting areas, and several hours each night scouring the Luvuvhu River. All without success. However, at dinner on the eve of our last day, a pair of Pel’s Fishing Owls started calling a short way upstream from our lodge. Running to the end of the boardwalk and scanning every exposed snag and fallen log jutting into the river…nothing! But, whilst walking back towards the restaurant, a sudden instinct told me to shine a torch into the tree hanging above. Some distance away from the river, it seemed unlikely that the Pel’s would be perched here. But there, in all its glory, sat a gorgeous Pel’s Fishing Owl. Seeing this species after nightfall was something I shall think back to for quite some time. The pair of Pel’s called throughout the night, serenading us into a joyous sleep.  

A large raptor flashed across the trail some 50 m ahead of us, we had recently heard a Crowned Eagle call and we assumed it might be this. Rob had seen it less well and hurried forward, spurred on by mobbing calls of Shining Drongos. Locating it on a branch, it was clearly huge and appeared to have a single large crest at the back of the head as it was looking sideways. He called Joe’s attention to it, causing it to turn and reveal that the crest was two ear-tufts and what was now staring at us was clearly a huge dark-faced and dark-eyed owl. Cameras were rapidly raised and a few shots fired off with fingers struggling to dial in 2 stops of compensation for the backlit white clouds. Then it dropped from its perch and was gone. In disbelief we thumbed through the book, trying to convince ourselves that we were wrong in our initial suspicions that we had just stumbled upon an incredibly rare owl. But, the dark eyes, pale bill, overall darkness of the bird, heavily barred breast feather viewable in the photos, and huge size, kept leading us back to what seemed unthinkable. Had we just seen Shelley’s Eagle-Owl? – a species people assumed might be in the lowlands of the Ankasa reserve, our next destination on our research project. Walking back down the hill, we got very wet, but smiles were glued to our still disbelieving faces and occasional profanities were uttered under our umbrellas.

On arrival at the hotel, Rob sent the picture to colleagues via the Rockjumper Guides group and a few select friends asking for comments. Many of the responses are not suitable for this blog but some of the phrases used were: “mega”, “holy-grail”, “struck gold”, “can I have the GPS point?”. Some of the best birders in Africa all agreed with the identification. In the next 48 hours we saw both Fraser’s and Akun Eagle-Owls which proved a nice and reassuring comparison.

Our ebird list (eBird Checklist S96242269) for the day records 97 species and a walk of just under 16km (though this does not include the 4 km we covered predawn). It would have been a great day’s birding anyway, but our targets of Nimba Flycatcher etc., although spectacular and greatly enjoyed, pale into insignificance in comparison with the image of that stern and furious looking owl that is burned into our memories. Birding does not get any better.

For me, like most birding guides, it was a rather “different” year. Luckily, I was able to get a job doing some consulting and was busy with that for most of the warm season here in Ontario. Once autumn came along, I took the opportunity of some free time to go to Colombia, to see some friends I have not seen since the start of the pandemic, and my first international venture since then! We had a great trip and for the first time in a long time, it felt like things were starting to go back to normal. While birding up in Santa Marta, we lucked out and got to watch a magnificent pair of Solitary Eagles for over half an hour, as they soared above and even below us in the valley. Undoubtedly, these were my birds of the year, a long-awaited lifer, and hopefully a sign of things to come!

However, the next month I’d been guiding a local birding outing to Thurlow Game Reserve with my good friend and long-standing Rockjumper guide, David Hoddinott, when we received a report of a male Striped Crake with tiny black chicks at a hide/blind in the famous Mkhuze Game Reserve. Immediately, I made up my mind that I was going for it so after finishing the outing, I raced back home, threw a few items in a bag, and hit the road for the four-hour drive northwards. Picking up my good mate and fellow Rockjumper guide, Andre Bernon along the way, we arrived at the hide in the late afternoon, the perfect time for the crake to reappear. Several minutes passed and that dipping feeling began to rear its ugly head but then suddenly, Andre picked up a slight bit of movement in the flooded grass just meters away, and there in all its glory was a male Striped Crake, swimming moorhen-like through the grass tussocks. We watched it intermittently for several minutes before witnessing some really bizarre behavior as it began climbing up the taller sedges, picking off grasshoppers and spiders as it did so. It then proceeded to build a bower-like structure just before dusk as if it were building a night-time nest for the chicks to settle in for the night, reminiscent of our great ape cousins, the Chimps, Orangutan, and Gorillas.

An amazing experience all-round and undoubtedly one of my all-time birding highlights!

For much of the year, international travel was either impossible or very difficult – so we focussed again on birding locally in South Africa. Meg and I have seen nearly every resident and regularly occurring migrant in the region, so aside from chasing rarities – we are left to enjoy the many species we have seen before. In late summer, we headed to Pilanesberg Game Reserve in the North West province. Almost entirely contained within the crater of an ancient, extinct volcano – the reserve is home to Iron and Stone age sites, an excellent selection of typical megafauna and over 350 species of bird. Nearly every animal on the reserve today is a result of what was the largest mammal relocation operation in 1979, when more than 6000 individuals were introduced to the reserve in Operation Genesis.

The reserve has no particularly unusual or critical bird species, which is why it is not covered by any Rockjumper Birding Tours. It does however have a wide selection of dry bushveld species, and numerous man made dams and lakes with their accompaniment of waterfowl. Of primary interest to me were a number of bushveld species for which I had poor, or no photos. Waxbills were high on this list, as many of the species I was looking for were resident on my farm in the days before I had a decent camera. Early morning drives racked up high numbers of species, and added to our photo collection – but it was one morning, and indeed one small bush that gave up every single species of Estrild I was after – in quick order we had Black-faced Waxbill, Jameson’s Firefinch, Green-winged Pytilia and finally a spectacular male Violet-eared Waxbill. A successful trip, and despite a little competition from a few rarities earlier in the year – Violet-eared Waxbill was my bird of the year.

I had the most amazing encounter with the cute and elusive Buff-spotted Flufftail. Flufftails are a shy and reclusive family and usually very difficult to observe. I was fortunate to have the most amazing views of a male at Darvill Bird Sanctuary, one of our local birding sites in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. This obliging male came out of thick undergrowth to give fabulous views. He even stayed long enough for me to get a photo. 

Up until November I had not had a tour since March 2020 and was restricted to birding in South Africa, leaving Black-eared Sparrow-Lark as my initial choice for bird of the year, but that changed suddenly with a spur of the moment trip to Uganda. Visiting Kibale Forest and the Rift Valley lakes offered us an opportunity to find some great competitors for my bird of the year, including Green-breasted Pitta and White-spotted Flufftail, but in the end, the choice was simple. 

On our final day in Entebbe, we sailed across Lake Victoria to the famous Mabamba Swamps to begin our search for the prize species of the trip, the monotypic Shoebill. As we traversed the Papyrus beds and floating vegetation in our boat, a large stork-like shape came into view. Standing tall above the raft of floating vegetation, barely moving except to occasionally look in a new direction, stood the statuesque Shoebill. In a flurry of movement this amazing species extended his neck and with a small flight struck at a target below the surface, missing narrowly. We sat with this individual for about 30 minutes just enjoying being in the company of this incredible species, finally leaving this icon of African birding to his own devices. Without a shadow of a doubt, my Bird of the year.

The nominate subspecies of African Barred Owlet is an extremely rare and poorly known bird. It has only been recorded from two remote locations, around Bathurst/Kariega and Mbotji, both in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The latest research, in which Rockjumper leader Dr. Daniel Danckwerts is involved, indicates that this subspecies should almost certainly be upgraded to full species status. It is about a third larger than other African Barred Owlet subspecies, and other differences include its vocalizations, darker back, and extensive tail barring.  
 
I have been birding in South Africa for over 30 years during which time I have seen all the country’s species (besides some vagrants) but had not come across this one. So, I decided to make an effort to find this elusive owlet. In September we took a family vacation to the former Transkei region of the Eastern Cape and first stayed a few nights at Mbotji, a small village on an estuary along a beautiful section of the rugged Wild Coast. To get to our cottage we drove through a large patch of moist evergreen forest which looked ideal for the owlet. My friend Hugo Partridge and I went out early the next morning finding lots of great birds such as Buff-spotted Flufftail, Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Knysna Woodpecker and Spotted Ground Thrush, and eventually, we heard this partially diurnal owlet calling from deep in the forest, down a dangerous slope. After several attempts at trying to reach this calling bird, we gave up. The next afternoon we tried another site and again had an owlet calling but failed to find it before dark. However, on our final morning we located a third territory and this time I was able to approach the calling owlet and eventually found it directly overhead, where it stayed and called for half an hour until we left the area. What a thrill! We then stayed further south at another lagoon called Manteku, and here we also located three pairs of Cape Barred Owlet (Glaucidium capense capense), not previously recorded from this location. 

Once he told us of his plan to call in and twitch the Varied Thrush on our way to back towards the airport I was full of excitement and anticipation, I mean who wouldn’t be, a totally unexpected life bird, one of the most spectacular members of the Zoothera thrushes on the planet – and we were going for it!

 The following morning we arrived at the house in rural Minneapolis, it was surrounded by a large wooded garden which was decorated with an assortment of bird feeders. As we walked towards the house through deep crunching snow, numerous Juncos, Titmice and Nuthatches were zipping around, together with Northern Cardinal, American Tree Sparrow and even a couple of Hoary Redpolls – this was garden birding at a new level – it was like being in the proverbial sweetshop!

 Settling down in comfy chairs with warm drinks and cookies, we eagerly awaited the arrival of the blue and orange dazzle of the Varied Thrush – the air of anticipation was palpable. Some 30 minutes later our local celebrity Zoothera had clearly not read the script and had still not appeared, to add to our nerves we were now perilously close to running out of time to get to the airport. The house-owner suggested that we put on our boots and walk around the edge of the property to see if we could locate the bird, which, we learnt had been present a good few days, and seen only 10 minutes before we arrived.

 Setting off into the deep snow we got great looks at another Saw-whet Owl, roosting near some rubbish bins, and several noisy parties of Blue Jay, a handful of Pine Siskins and Hairy woodpecker, but no sign of any thrushes…As we walked around the corner of a tall stand of coniferous trees, the owner stopped abruptly, looked down, and then put his head in his hands, just like you see in a movie, but this was no movie, it was the gut-wrenching realisation that the bird we wanted to see so much was laying motionless in the snow a few yards away, and on closer inspection from Alex, minus its head, giving a clue to its feline killer, probably hiding in the nearby bushes – we were distraught and just couldn’t bring ourselves to look at this sad sight, a few yards away, and as the saying has it, so near and yet so far…

 Fast forward around 5 years and we were heading to Colorado to see the lekking grouse, on a trip we lovingly named ‘the chicken run’. Two weeks before we landed in Denver, I’d seen on the local birding email group that a Varied Thrush had been present in a park around an hour from Denver airport, so this seemed to be THE best place to start our birding in Colorado, however, the thrush obviously knew I was coming, so rather incredibly departed the day before we got there – Gutted!

 So, now to the present day, and a birder David Roche, who until the last few years was based locally to me. He’d been birding his new patch on the tiny island of Papa Westray in Orkney, off Northern Scotland, in the hope of finding a rarity, and given the gale-force westerly winds, a North American one too.

 What he, nor any other British birder was expecting him to discover was a stunning first-winter male Varied Thrush; 40 years since the last and only record, and the stuff of legends, I can tell you that when the news broke, I knew I had to go, and within a day was driving up to Edinburgh to fly onto mainland Orkney, and then in a tiny twin-engined 5 seater plane, on to Papa Westray, but would it stay, and would it manage to evade the local predators…?

 Well, as several of us sat in the airport terminal awaiting our flight, we learnt that it had indeed stayed overnight and was now hopping around the lawn of its newly found feeding area, some 4000km from where it should have been, and over 1000km north of my home – Twitch very definitely on!

 Reliving the moment I put my binoculars up and finally, yes finally, laid my eyes on this beautifully marked dark blue-grey and orange beauty makes me emotional just at the mere thought. The stress, the tension, the anticipation, and now we had done it, the sheer relief and celebration, we had laid to rest the ghost of nearly 20 years beforehand – I had now definitely seen a Varied Thrush – it was alive and kicking, and what a beauty at that!

 The drive home was a long one, but the adrenaline and excitement of such a fantastic bird and the circumstances in which I’d finally seen one, made for a pleasant journey, as every time I found myself feeling tired, I just grinned and whispered to myself…we’ve seen a Varied Thrush…